Lieutenant Edward Osborne Brice Killen

https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/story/97384
Ireland, Casualties of World War I, 1914-1918
Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919
Name: Edward Osborne Brice Killen
Death Date: 15 Jan 1917
Rank: 2nd Lieutenant
Regiment: Corps of Royal Engineers
Type of Casualty: Killed in action
71st Field Company GDSS

Lieutenant Edward Osborne Brice Killen is commemorated in the Belfast Book of Honour (Page 320) and in Newtownbreda Presbyterian Church.

Lieutenant Killen’s service and death are also commemorated on the Bedford School Memorial Panel. His name is listed in the University of London Officers Training Corps Roll of the Fallen, in Ireland’s Memorial Records, 1914-1918 and by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission at the Amara War Cemetery.

NOTE: In 1933 all of the headstones in the Amara War Cemetery were removed as salts in the soil caused a rapid deterioration of the stone used. In place of the headstones a screen wall was erected with all of the names of the men buried there engraved upon it.

https://www.reubique.com/killen.htm
Edward was born on the 26th of September 1893 in Belfast, Ireland. In 1910 he entered Bedford School, an independent school for boys located in the county town of Bedford. The school was founded in 1552 and is the oldest of four independent schools in Bedford run by the Harpur Trust. He was head of E.C.1 at Christmas, 1910, and after that date he passed the London Matriculation (at age 17), and Intermediate B.Sc. exams. He had gained several open prizes for photographs of bird life, and was an expert and intrepid rock and tree climber. According to Bedford School records “Killen's record at School, good as it was, hardly showed what was latent in him.” In 1911 Edward was living with his parents at the Campbell Road address in Bedford. His home was within easy walking distance of the school.

In 1913 Edward entered Trinity Hall College of Cambridge University and he participated in the Cambridge University Officers Training Corps (O.T.C.), where he got his introduction to military life. When the war began in August of 1914 he was at Trinity Hall reading for the Natural Science Tripos. His O.T.C. training made him eligible to apply for a commission in the Army, which it appears that he must have done about a year and a half after the war started. There is no indication that he received an academic degree from Cambridge before beginning his military service.

Egypt and Gallipoli (1915-1916)
Prior to reporting to his unit for duty Lieutenant Killen would have attended a basic officer’s course at the School of Military Engineering at Chatham, Kent. This course would have lasted for about 9 months, during which time he would have learned the basics of field fortifications, military construction, surveying, military topography and other courses related to military engineering. Once the course had ended he received orders to join his unit of assignment; that is, the 71st Field Company, Royal Engineers commanded at that time by Captain D.S. Collins, R.E.

Lieutenant Killen’s Medal Index Card indicated that he went to Egypt in September of 1915. The 13th Division and the 71st Field Company, along with the division’s other field companies, the 72nd and 88th were at Gallipoli at the time. The division’s Commander Royal Engineers (C.R.E.) was Lieutenant Colonel A.J. Wolff, R.E., who had taken over the position from Lieutenant Colonel G.D. Close, R.E. in August of 1915.

At this point there is some confusion regarding Killen’s whereabouts after leaving for Egypt. Although he was serving with the 71st Field Company, what is uncertain is whether he went to Gallipoli to join the company or whether he went to Mudros on the Greek island of Lemnos. If he joined the company at Gallipoli it would have been after the Battle for Hill 60 (27-28 August 1915). From the 19th to the 20th of December 1915 the 13th Division was evacuated from the beaches at Suvla on Gallipoli and moved to Mudros. Then, between the 27th to the 31st of December the 71st Field Company moved back to Gallipoli from Mudros to the beaches at Helles.

At this point Lieutenant Killen could have been left behind to work on pier construction at Mudros. If he did go back to Gallipoli with the company at this point, then he would have been present during the last Turkish attack made at Helles on the 7th of January 1916 and he subsequently was evacuated from Helles to Mudros again between the 8th and 9th of January. On the 31st of January 1916 the 71st Field Company left Mudros for Egypt. The company was commanded at this time by Lieutenant G.W. Richmond. R.E.

The Battle of Kut-al-Amara began on the 13th of December 1916 with the objective of capturing Baghdad. As the battle was beginning, Lieutenant Colonel E.C. Tylden-Pattenson, R.E., a veteran of the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900, assumed the duty of CRE of the 13th Division. The British had some 50,000 well-trained and well-equipped troops, mostly British Indian troops of the Indian Expeditionary Force, together with the 13th (Western) Division which included the 71st, 72nd and 88th Field Companies R.E. and the 13th Divisional Signal Company, R.E. Other field engineering support could be provided by the 8th (Service) Battalion, Welsh Regiment, which was converted to a Pioneer Battalion in January of 1915.

The Ottoman forces contested a fortified place called the Khadairi Bend which the British captured after two weeks of siege work (6 January to 19 January 1917). The Battle of the Khadairi Bend was fought as a prelude to the main offensive at the Second Battle of Kut.

Specifically it was intended at undermining Turkish defences sited at the highly fortified Khadairi Bend, positioned in two deep trench lines at the north of Kut in a loop of the River Tigris along the left bank.

British operations were overseen by newly-installed regional Commander-in-Chief Sir Frederick Maude. Maude's plans for undermining Turk defences around Kut were carefully constructed and executed over a period of some months.

British sappers began to dig positions underneath the Turkish lines from the 22nd of December 1916 with the capture of Turkish outposts. Within two weeks they had succeeded in digging to within just 200 metres of the Turks' eastern position.

In preparation for attack on the Hai Salient in January 2017 a system of trenches was constructed in successive parallel lines, which eventually were within 300 yards of the enemy's front line, and assault was possible. The new trenches stretched row behind row and were designated "Queen's Trench," "King's Trench" and "Emperor's Trench."

Following a series of diversionary attacks launched along the Tigris on the 7th and 8th of January 1917, and preceded by an unusually effective artillery bombardment, a major British assault against the town was initiated by Maude on the 9th of January. British progress was good in the face of impressive Turkish opposition.

On the 9th of January 1917 the 13th Division was engaged in the Battle of Kut-al-Amara in the area known as the Hai salient. This salient extended from the banks of the Tigris, immediately southeast of Kut, in a southwesterly direction to the Hai, at that time a broad stream about 14 feet deep. The salient then ran about a mile due west and bent back to the south. The distance separating the British line from the Turkish trenches varied from about 300 yards on the Tigris bank to about 1,000 yards at and west of the apex of the salient. The salient was held by two brigades of the 13th Division, the 38th and 39th. The 71st Field Company generally supported the 39th Brigade.

The division advanced astride the River Hai and made some progress on the east bank and then was transferred to the west bank. The 71st Field Company had much hard and exacting work in trench warfare operations ending with the occupation of the Dahra Bend. They were never used as infantry in the assaults. The work was chiefly sapping and taping trenches for night-digging by the infantry. Often the trench line advanced less than a hundred yards in 24 hours and casualties were heavy because the ground was flat and open.

It was on one such operation that Lieutenant Killen was killed, probably by a Turkish sniper, although the exact nature of his wound is not known. When describing Killen’s death his Captain wrote:

"The Infantry had advanced, and he was coolly setting out the new communication trenches. The Corporal who was helping him in directing the digging of the Infantry saw him fall. He was at once unconscious and died quite peacefully. He was buried on West bank of Hai, a few miles south of Kut. We are very sad at having lost him so soon. His keenness and ability—especially for siting trenches with such little experience — greatly impressed us. Personally he was an ideal companion and his loss is irreplaceable. "

https://barryniblock.co.uk/world-war-one-list-of-dead/names-listed-...